Up with the sun. It was supposed to be another scorcher, and I wanted to get the big climb of the day out of the way as early as possible. Today was the last day of the ride, and when I finished I still needed to disassemble my bike so we could continue on the next leg of our vacation. Fortunately today was going to be relatively easy, about 92k with 1200m of climbing, but overall we would drop about 500m in elevation as we return to sea level.
The air was dry and there was no dew on my tent so I could pack up immediately and by 6:30 I was on the road. I retraced my path from yesterday into town to buy some breakfast. This meant I had to climb back up a bit of a hill to continue on my way, but I didn’t know when the next opportunity for food would be, so better safe than sorry.
Over the top we started a nice 12k descent to the Cecina River valley. The pavement was nice and smooth to start, but soon we turned off onto a gravel road on some private property at Tenuta Mocajo. The scenery was beautiful as the sun was coming up, but I was in a hurry and didn’t take any pictures, so you’ll have to take my word for it. At the bottom of the hill some Africans were walking through the gates in the opposite direction. I guess they were coming to work, doing the work that Italians and Mexicans won’t do (at the wages provided).
In the valley I pulled into a roadside cafe full of riders to get some coffee. The Spanish guy in front of me ordered some huevos and proceeded to get an Italian lesson. “No huevo. Un uovo. Due uovi. Tre uova.” I’m not sure if due uovi are part of the male anatomy or part of the local dialect. Either way, an egg sounded good, so I carefully ordered “Un uovo, per favore.”
One by one tired riders made their way out the door to attack the big climb of the day, 425m over the next 9k. The climb began with some switchbacks on rough gravel with the pitch slowly increasing. I could see the town of Querceto on the hill which made a nice goal. Shortly before the town the road turned to asphalt, but it also got steeper the close we got to town. 10%, 15%, 20%. Almost there. 25%. Finally it flattened out as we got to town. This is a good spot to stop for another coffee.
It was a welcome break, but I still had about 5k and 250m left to climb, so back on the bike. After a long bumpy climb I finally made it to the top at what must have been a gravel quarry at one time. The next 10k was a series of rollers along a plateau in the Riserva Naturale di Monterufoli-Caselli.
With the flatter terrain I noticed that shifting into higher gears had become unreliable. In addition, my bar tape was unravelling, and the temples on my sunglasses were disintegrating. Things were starting to fall apart. Good thing it was the last day.
After several kilometers of rolling hills we exited the Nature Reserve onto pavement. Down the hill to my left I saw a couple large cooling towers. I thought to myself, “That’s a terrible spot for a nuclear power plant. No security at all. Someone could just drive up and lob a few grenades down there. How Italian can you get?” Upon further research it turns out that was one of 33 geothermal power plants in Tuscany which provide about 1.5% of Italy’s electricity, and the first commercial plant dates back to 1911. Not a heck of a lot of power, but at least it’s not dependent on the wind and the sun.
After a nice downhill we rolled up to the outskirts of Canneto, population 200. Low on water I decided to head into town and found a fountain, where an old man was filling up 5 gallon buckets for his garden. We took turns at the spigot which gave me a nice chance to rest in the shade.
After a few more kilometers in the sun we rolled into Monteverdi Marittimo where a few dozen cyclists were resting in front of a shop. Not knowing if there would be any civilization between here and the finish, I stopped in for resupply. Several kilometers later we entered the town of Sassetto, which appears to be mostly populated by mannequins sitting in front of buildings on the main street. Kind of funny, but kind of creepy too. In the shade of the small main square there were several other cyclists indulging in snacks that were set out on a table. They appeared to be a different group of cyclists with Trek Travel. Feeling like I was invading a rival gang’s turf, I figured it was best to move along before any trouble started, though to be honest, a fight between cyclists would probably be one of the lamest fights ever.
Soon we entered the forest on some rough gravel roads to begin our long descent to the coastal plains. As I was about 20k from the finish I texted my wife to let her know I’d soon be finished and she could come pick me up in about an hour. The reply came, “We are still in Siena. Go slow.”
The road here was probably more suitable for a mountain bike; chunky, rocky, rutted and loose in places. Some people pulled off to the side to check their phones for an easier paved route down, but that felt like cheating. My experience from the crazy rides I’ve done in the past came in handy as I never felt too much at risk even as I passed a guy who had wiped out and bruised his ego.
Safely down the hill and out of the Parco di Poggio Neri we pulled into the last classic Tuscan town on the route, Suvereto. Knowing I had time before my wife arrived I figured it was a good chance to find some gelato. The only gelato shop in town was flying a weird flag that mixed the rainbow flag with Palestinian colors and had a red star on it. According to ChatGPT, the flag belongs to ARCI, which “stands for Associazione Ricreativa e Culturale Italiana (“Italian Recreational and Cultural Association”). Founded in 1957, it is a nationwide network of community clubs and associations that organize cultural events, concerts, theater, educational activities, social services, and political and civic initiatives. Its statutes describe it as promoting democracy, anti-fascism, social inclusion, culture, and solidarity.” You can’t fool me. They’re commies.
I didn’t want to patronize a bunch of commies, but it was the only game in town, and I wanted chocolate, so I gave in. The gelato was excellent, but I felt dirty. Maybe that made it taste better. We all have to make compromises sometimes. Perhaps next time I’ll return with a helicopter.
At last we were on the home stretch. The route took us onto a busy main road for a couple of kilometers, but soon turned off onto some side roads. All of a sudden the maladies that I had managed to avoid the entire trip started to creep in. My butt started to hurt, and my legs felt like they might start cramping. Strange how my brain kept these things at bay until now. Luckily I got to the finish without issue. I collected my bottle of wine, took my picture, redeemed my beer ticket and texted my wife that I was waiting.
Before long I was back in the parking lot where I started and was disassembling my bike so we could head off to Therme Saturna where I would bathe in the sulfuric waters, which would somehow make me smell better. Tomorrow we would drop off my bike at luggage storage at the airport and spend a couple days in Rome, where we would ride the Appian Way. Stay tuned for more.
Overall I was satisfied with how the ride went. Physically I felt as good as could be expected. The gear mostly held up well. It didn’t rain, I didn’t crash, and I didn’t flat. There’s a good chance I’ll be back, if not for this ride, then some other ride in Europe. I already have some in mind.
These articles are ableist Jamie. I’m going to call the whambulance!!
So pretty. Jealous.
[ TOK checks Threedoor into the boards ]
Vicariously is the best way for me to travel.
Happy to ride along with you though. Now I’m tired as well.
Thanks, Jaime
Sure beats my view.
The wife brought out the Giant Tetris just now so it’s about to get silly.
https://ibb.co/wrjFnxx1
New Remy
https://youtu.be/4CZpTRrZPDY?is=f4F1y-59khwoLzBl
Texas goes blue by 2036.
Do we have a poll for this yet?
I think it will be sooner.
Georgia flipped from 60/40 red in a single cycle.
Colorado melted under the influx.
The machine just needs large metro areas and “close enough”
And Florida was solid blue until they purged the vote rolls, now it bleeds red.
Shit changes.
That and motor voter. Wa OR CA had a chance before it.
I doubt that will ever get eliminated now.
😭
I want nuclearization.
They’ll be coming for your bike tires next!
https://nypost.com/2026/08/18/business/california-regulators-approve-new-replacement-tire-restrictions/?utm_campaign=nypost&utm_medium=referral
I assume that grip and ride comfort will take a backseat to durability. The important thing is the planet!
“Tires must be made of stainless steel.
OT – the Maglula Uplula works a treat. Can definitely recommend. Between it and filing the follower I can use my new magazines, but it’s still ridiculously stiff.
I also 3D printed an adapter for single stack magazines. Or you can order a tiny plastic plate adapter from Maglula for $17 for a $29 device…
The Uplula is a great piece of hardware. Same with the regular Maglula, for when you get yourself an AR-15…
Lex Luthor had the right idea.
“This ultimately is about protecting consumers,” said David Hochschild, the chairman of the California Energy Commission. “I see this as sheltering the public from higher costs in the long run.”
Californians need more decision making help, if they know what’s good for themselves.
Looks like my Michelin XMLs are not going to be available in Cali.
I hope this leads to all kinds of crashes and mass casualty events when it rains.
I just replace a pair of Michelin all season tires that were bald in 33,000 miles. I used to be Michelin only, now I won’t buy the. I run a Les Schwab brand of all season tires and they’re marvelous. And they have an 80,000 mile wear warranty.
The Schwab house brand ones are pretty good. They had a rip off BFG back in the day that was pretty good.
Therme Saturna looks interesting.
*raises hand, sheepish* Un ‘jelly roll’ per questo osservatore geloso, per favore. (Nailed it!)
On my one trip to Italy, we went through Siena. Of all places to take a bicycling getaway, down by three, you hit a grand slam to bike off the touchdown in overtime. I can’t imagine a better place for a scenic ride.
I’d like to give you a more forceful ‘Congratulations!’ than the “FINISHER” the org gave that curious smiley-faced figure, who may be a festively-styled Charlie Brown, moonlighting as a delivery Bag Man. Yours is one of those adventures that burn into your eyes, the iodide crystallizing that forever. Well accomplished and great pics.
Thanks for sharing this, Jamie. It looked like a lot of fun.
I could never ride through Tuscany on a bike. I’d always be eatin’, and end up weighing five thousand pounds.
Thanks for sharing, it’s very cool.
Fantastic. I do enjoy these. Thank you sir!
+1
The site is back to being borderline unusable* on Safari, even with the low-impact option enabled on Monocle. I turned Monocle off, we’ll see how it goes.
*constant bot checks, and the bot checks don’t even load the first time or two or three
I use Chrome at work and Brave at home. I get bot checks once a day at home and every few hours at home. Annoying but not problematic.
I get a bot check every time I switch from one device to another, but that’s about it.
Same, plus usually one first thing in the morning.
On Safari.
Probably related but the Monocle function to refresh comment count is not reliable lately. A lot of times that seems related to WP troubles, 403 errors, etc.
Could be background 403s; also, too, it counts all the server-side comments but if you have anyone Nuked/Muted you’ll see a different figure when you refresh.
The symptom is not wrong count, it’s no count at all, when I am sure there must be new comments. Then I refresh and there are new comments. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
So your saying Rhywum mutes people….
rhy, are you using the ‘low impact’ mode, that just shows ‘(+)’ if there are new comments?
Regardless, the new ‘idle’ logic stops polling if the tab isn’t the active one. When it switches back, it’ll start polling again – but it’s currently sticking with the last period, so if it was at the 320s poll period, it’ll use that. That may be what you’re seeing. That, or it did get a 403 at some point – it’ll stop polling if that happens (I think).
That kind of sucks, so I am going to see if I can get it to start “fresh” at 10s when the tab is made active again.
I don’t actually mute anyone.
I turned “low impact” off a couple days ago to see if it had an impact, so no.
I wouldn’t mute anyone if I could figure out how to use Monocle, much less download it.
Hell. When I had FB I think I only blocked 3-5 people ever. Likely one of the reasons I got kicked off.
Still getting bot checks. Not as many, and they seem to be working better (loading the first time).
Do let me know if flat-out turning off Monocle helps; the ‘check new post’ function polls every 90 seconds, which ought to be nothing but who knows.
It does not. I do not think monocle is a major problem
Maybe helped some.
“one of 33 geothermal power plants in Tuscany which provide about 1.5% of Italy’s electricity”
Uh. That seems like way too much money for nowhere near enough power. (Italian ‘efficiency,’ eh? Sadly, seems about right.)
How does compare to power generation in the US?
0.4% according to the Google.
town of Sassetto, which appears to be mostly populated by mannequins sitting in front of buildings on the main street.
Atom bomb test site?
A restaurant in a historic tavern nearby keeps a mannequin standing on the porch.
grip and ride comfort will take a backseat to durability.
Modern cars have too much grip. Tires should be no wider than 195, and more like plastic than rubber. Make driving challenging and fun again.
May & Hammond are on it.
Just like a drift trike with PVC over the rear tires.
Everyone should be forced to have 7.00 16 non directionals.
Now that’s fun in the snow and rain!
When you say remote…
A recent analysis from the New York Fed found that companies are less likely to hire recent college grads into roles that can be done remotely. As remote jobs increased following the COVID-19 pandemic, so did unemployment among younger college grads, the New York Fed found.
The analysis also found that AI didn’t explain the rise in unemployment among younger workers and that remote work was more of a driving force.
Deming says hiring an entry-level worker requires companies to invest time and resources to get them up to speed. Employers hiring for remote jobs may be less likely to choose an entry-level candidate because it’s harder to train them from afar.
You wouldn’t want companies to have to invest in their work force. That went out with wooden barrels.
I can’t keep up. Are the evil kkkapitalist kkkorporations
(1) Forcing workers to come into the office unnecessarily, or
(2) Making jobs remote so they don’t have to train people?
“Yes. Which is why we need to elect DSA candidates.”
Megacorp sent everyone home in March 2020. They saw a substantial increase in productivity and began decommissioning rented office space.
Three and a half years later, productivity had crashed. One-third of the workforce were new hires (most of those new grads). Those people never came up to speed.
Solution, everyone comes back to the office even though all the rented space was gone. Double occupancy offices became triple occupancy offices.
It would be discriminatory to let old, productive employees work from while forcing new hires to come into the office. Particularly when the whole goal is to have new hires interact with older, productive engineers.
Your tax dollars at work
The ruling is the latest development in a yearslong battle over where to house the main office for the nation’s premier law enforcement agency. A site in Greenbelt, Maryland, was picked during former President Joe Biden’s administration, but Trump appointees sought to reverse that decision last year in favor of repurposing the Ronald Reagan Building, a federal office complex a few blocks from the FBI’s existing headquarters.
U.S. District Judge Theodore D. Chuang, an appointee of President Barack Obama, ruled that the move was “ not in accordance with law,” and blocked the Trump administration from moving the FBI to the Reagan building, renovating it for the FBI or repurposing funds.
——-
“Maryland and Prince George’s County committed more than a decade of work to earn the FBI headquarters and pledged hundreds of millions of dollars,” Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown, a Democrat, said in a statement. “By blocking the Trump Administration’s unlawful attempt to move the FBI to the Reagan Building and divert the funds Congress set aside for this project, the Court has cleared the path back to Greenbelt.”
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, also a Democrat, said, “Now it is time to stop the games and get to work building the world-class FBI headquarters that our public servants deserve, where it belongs: in Prince George’s County, Maryland.”
The FBI’s current Pennsylvania Avenue headquarters, the J. Edgar Hoover Building, was dedicated in 1975. Proponents of moving the headquarters have said the brutalist-style building, where nets surround the facility to protect pedestrians from falling debris, has fallen into disrepair.
There are millions of square feet of vacant office space these days, but by all means, spend a few billion building a shiny new wet dream monument to authoritarianism.
Good Lord.
I recall the Biden admin changed the selection criteria to include some DEI scoring. That is why Maryland and PiG County won.
“Pledged 100s of millions “ Meaning you haven’t spent a dime yet.
paging Fourscore…
The order directs the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency not to issue any mining permits or leases in the area, which spans about 350 square miles of the Superior National Forest within the Rainy River headwaters surrounding the wilderness.
Any proposed mining project in the state — even on federal lands — requires permits and environmental approvals from state agencies before it can move forward.
The order also would halt any new environmental review of nonferrous (non-iron ore) mining proposals within the watershed, and would not allow state agencies to cooperate with the federal government on the review of any proposals.
Governor Leave-it-in-the-ground will save the earth.
I collected my bottle of wine, took my picture, redeemed my beer ticket and texted my wife that I was waiting.
The important question is: Was the wine and beer good?
“I am using my full executive authority to protect the waters and wildlife of the Boundary Waters and to ensure the outfitters, small businesses, and communities that depend on it continue to thrive for generations to come,” Walz said in a statement accompanying the executive order. “It’s our duty as Minnesotans to ensure the sacred place remains wild, pristine, and unharmed.”
Doesn’t that imply a need to evict all those outfitters and outdoorsy small businesses and townspeople? If you want it to be pristine and unspoiled, you need to eradicate all traces of human infestation.
Some homeless fucker, bold as tarnished brass, just came up on my porch and tried to swipe a package. I could see the fucker from my chair, as my front door is open with just the screen door to let air in, waltz up and grab something. So, I, with my bum leg and cane, hobbled out the door to the street and yelled:
“drop the package, Asshole!”
And it worked, he turned around, brought me my package, and shuffled off to where ever. My wife, who is very over protective of me, is now on the porch, wondering what is going on, my dog in the back yard is barking her head off, and I return with the package.
Jesus. H. Tiddy. Fuckin’. Christ.
You know, explosive porch bombs are illegal. How about a CO2 cartridge dumper tied to a funnel full of feces? It’s not explosive.